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Comment Re:maybe (Score 1) 512

The lawyers tell me that under the Geneva Conventions, collateral damage including the killing of innocent civilians is acceptable if it is necessary to achieve a military objective.

Why don't you explain the military necessity of blowing up a hospital when the IDF itself admits that the only military objective was 100 meters away.

Obviously that isn't really possible ..... when you omit critical information. Fortunately I can address that.

Terrorists fire rockets from Gaza hospital

The IDF said that after days of consideration it has begun to attack the Wafa Hospital compound. The military claimed the hospital has been a hotbed of terrorists activities, with gun and anti-tank missile fire originating from the cite. ....

The al Wafa hospital was evacuated last week after a number of phone call warnings from the IDF.

The hospital, which serves as a rehab facility had gained attention after a group of activists moved in to be alongside 17 patients could not be evacuated.

Nevertheless, they were moved last Thursday to a nearby hospital as Israel struck targets that rattled the facility.

So it appear that there was more than just rocket fire coming form the site, which addresses the question of military necessity. Also note that the Israelis actually called ahead to warn about the coming strikes. That humanitarian gesture could reasonably be expected to permit some of the Hamas fighters to escape.

Comment Re:Scale and proportion. (Score 1) 512

Your claim about the number and frequency of rocket attacks is essentially false. There has been a steady stream of rocket attacks this year, as there are most years.

List of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, 2014

You seem to be arguing that Hamas can attack as much as it likes as long as it isn't very successful due to Israeli diligence, and those attacks should just be ignored. That is ridiculous. An attempted attack is just as serous a matter as a successful attack, just as much an act of war. Israel is well justified in defending itself against those rocket attacks using proportionate means, which is what it is doing. Hamas launches artillery rockets, Israel replies with bombs and artillery.

It doesn't matter which faction did the firing, Hamas is the governing authority of Gaza, they are responsible.

Your argument about scaling Palestinian Arab deaths is nonsense. Who are the "Palestinians"? They are simply the Arabs that live in that area of the Middle East. The Middle East has well over 100,000,000 Arabs living in it. There is no scaling required to count deaths among the Arabs.

Of that one thousand dead, many hundreds of them are Hamas gunmen, others are human shields (another war crime by Hamas). Then there are those killed by Hama's incompetence or criminality.

Why The Press Keeps Qualifying That They're Not Sure Who Struck UN School

Comment Re:Or maybe you're not so good at math (Score 1) 512

Touché. But in fairness I don't believe that the IRA was given any weapons you wouldn't find in an infantry battalion (which is certainly bad enough). Hamas has been supplied that, along with long range artillery rockets and many other far more powerful weapons than the IRA ever dreamed of. and actually constitutes the elected government of the region which gives them a much stronger hand.

As to IRA funding, the Irish seem to have had a hand in that, as well as Libya, and various other entities. To the extent that people in Boston were sympathetic I expect it was largely due to their strongly held Irish heritage rather than any general American anti-British sentiment.

It is also worth noting that when prosecuting or extraditing people for involvement with the IRA and its activities the US government ran into the same kinds of legal issues and "questionable" decisions from judges that it has run into in the war against al Qaida.

Comment Re:maybe (Score 1) 512

Best way to evaluate that claim is to look at the facts.

I look forward to you gathering relevant ones. So far you seem to be providing pointers to Hamas war crimes. You can't use protected structures or civilians as shields.

Terrorists fire rockets from Gaza hospital

Israel says Hamas uses Wafa hospital compound to attack soldiers, fire anti-tank missiles; ground, air forces attack Gaza City where they claim 'an entire Hamas brigade is active'; 10 terrorists killed.

IDF campaign shows rockets in schools and hospitals

On Monday afternoon the IDF publishes visuals displaying rocket launchers placed at a number of civilian sites, like playgrounds, schools, and hospital .... Last week, prior to the ground incursion, Israel was criticized for an aerial bombardment of a rocket launcher in Gaza City's Saja'iyya neighborhood. The IDF said then that the launcher was in an empty structure adjacent to el-Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital. Hours before the strike the hospital received an automated phone message from the IDF saying its staff had to evacuate all patients as they could get hurt in the strike ...."The strike was on an unpopulated structure that used to serve as the hospital's geriatric ward," he said.

Comment Re:maybe (Score 2) 512

Perhaps there is another explanation - what you think you know or believe isn't true, including the idea that this is "anti 'east' propaganda" from the US. This has been a concern for many years, long before 2001.

Female genital mutilation in Pakistan, and beyond

The sad reality, however, is that although FGM is widely common in African countries, most people are unaware that this brutal practice is in Pakistan too.

What happens in Pakistan

In Pakistan, the act of FGM is practiced amongst select areas and communities – one example being the Bohra Muslims. There are roughly about 100,000 Bohra Muslims in the country, mostly in the southern regions of Pakistan, such as Sindh. In recent years, due to a rise in strict sect religious compliance by the Bohra Muslims, the practice of FGM has increased. Unless the Bohra chief, known as Dai, issues a decree to forbid the act, the practice will remain firmly rooted in the people’s culture and will continue to be practiced. . . .

What clerics say

Since the State of Pakistan is an Islamic country, let’s take a look at what Islam says about the practice.

To begin with, the Holy Quran does not bear even a single mention of female circumcision. In addition to this, there is no Hadith that mandates this practice. However, some have argued that one Hadith, although not requiring it, appears to accept the practice:

“Circumcision is a commendable act for men (Sunnah) and is an honourable thing for women” (Makromah).

Comment Re:Not just version 4.9 (Score 1) 739

by cold fjord (#47545743) Attached to: Linus Torvalds: "GCC 4.9.0 Seems To Be Terminally Broken"

When the code being run isn't the code that was written, all bets are off.

It is still the code that was written, just the choices in translation of the high level language to the machine code has some bad behavior as compared to other renderings of the code.

The only time you're going to get one for one direct mapping is coding in assembly language.

But I do agree, compiler bugs are a royal pain.

Comment Re:I know you're trying to be funny, but... (Score -1, Troll) 739

by cold fjord (#47545689) Attached to: Linus Torvalds: "GCC 4.9.0 Seems To Be Terminally Broken"

So you're suggesting that executable format, c library, virtual memory, file systems, 32 vs 64 bit, sound drivers, and device abstractions have no relevance to kernel development and maintenance in Linux? Who were you calling clueless again?

I also like your idea of a "humble" guy that regularly uses abusive language towards people. It might explain a thing or two.

One question - who will be helping you with your butthurt?

Comment Re:maybe (Score 2) 512

That mandate is false and debunked since two weeks already, it never existed.
Hint: genital mutilation is not an islamic thing but an africans natural religions/tribal thing.

Well, that's a relief. After all, if you can't trust Islamist extremists, who can you trust? Now we only need to worry about crucifixtions, massacres, and depopulating the country of Christians under threat of death.

Is Female Genital Mutilation an Islamic Problem?

... at the village level, those who commit the practice believe it to be religiously mandated. Religion is not only theology but also practice. And the practice is widespread throughout the Middle East. Many diplomats, international organization workers, and Arabists argue that the problem is localized to North Africa or sub-Saharan Africa,[4] but they are wrong. The problem is pervasive throughout the Levant, the Fertile Crescent, and the Arabian Peninsula, and among many immigrants to the West from these countries. Silence on the issue is less reflective of the absence of the problem than insufficient freedom for feminists and independent civil society to raise the issue.

Iraq crisis: End 'very near' for Christianity after Isis takeover, says Bishop

For those Christians who did not comply with the decree by 19 July, Isis warned that "there is nothing to give them but the sword.” Many have since fled their homes and Rev. Andrew-White told BBC Radio 4 Today desperate Christians were trapped in the desert or on the streets with nowhere to go.

"Things are so desperate, our people are disappearing," he said. "We have had people massacred, their heads chopped off.

-----

I don't know many 'arabs' got killed in this YEAR in Syria, but I know the death toll in Palestine was over 1000 in the last two weeks, perhaps you can enlighten us how that will scale for the rest of the year?

Most likely until Hamas decides to declare another phyrric "victory" and stop firing rockets. And lets not overlook the difference: Hamas deliberately targets civilians, the Israelis don't.

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